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Honey Badger Radio: Shit feminists say

We’re no strangers to the ravings of feminists. In fact, there’s very little that we haven’t seen or heard. With the popularity of the Women Against Feminism hashtag, the web is filled to the brim with feminist bullshit.

But sometimes there are things said that are exceptionally bad. Words that are so bafflingly dumb, so mind-numbingly stupid, that it simply must be shared. Because this is a level of ignorance that must be seen to be believed.

News

Stephen A. Smith has been suspended by ESPN until August 6, 2014

Stephen A. Smith has been suspended by ESPN until August 6, 2014, because of his comment on ESPN’s “First Take” discussing the NFL’s two-game suspension of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice on charges of assaulting his now-wife.

Stephen stated, “Let’s make sure we don’t do anything to provoke wrong action … we’ve got to also make sure that you can do your part to do whatever you can do to make, to try to make sure, it doesn’t happen again.”

Coworker Michelle Beadle responded on Twitter shortly after: “I was just forced to watch this morning’s First Take. A) I’ll never feel clean again B) I’m not aware that I can provoke my own beating.”

Stephen has since profusely apologized, saying he was not saying women are responsible for their own abuse. He stated “It was not what I was trying to say. Yet the failure to clearly articulate something different lies squarely on my shoulder.”

ESPN is strongly against personalities attacking each other on social media, but it has not punished Beadle. [Of fucking course not!! Women can defy all rules because feminist vagina.]

Ray Rice allegedly hit his then-fiancé after she attacked him. His now-wife admitted she hit him first.

Whoopi Goldberg has come under attack for supporting Stephen Smith, sharing that this assault, initiated by Rice’s wife, is what Smith was referring to. Whoopi firmly states, “If you hit a man, don’t be surprised when he hits you back.”

[I fully agree. Feminists who don’t get this need to be asked, Are they okay with violence? Are they okay with people being hit and they cannot defend themselves? If they are not, then it needs to be pointed out that they do not see men as people.]

FBI faulty forensics led to nearly two decades of potentially innocent people rotting in jail

The FBI recently discovered errors in forensics spanning nearly two decades. U.S. officials began this inquiry in 2012 after The Washington Post reported that flawed forensic evidence involving microscopic hair matches might have led to the convictions of hundreds of potentially innocent people. Most defendants were not told of these problems in their cases.

The inquiry includes 2,600 convictions and 45 death row cases from the 1980s and 1990s in which the FBI’s hair and fiber unit reported a match to a crime scene sample, before DNA testing became common. The FBI had reviewed about 160 cases before it stopped, officials said.

Three defendants were executed and one died in prison in the time it took for officials to re-examine the 60 death row cases that were possibly tainted by agent misconduct, most of which involved the FBI hair and fiber unit that has come under scrutiny.

This recent restart of the review is finding that there are some errors in forensics in the majority of cases. According to a Justice Department spokesperson, officials last August completed reviews and notified a first wave of defendants in 23 cases, including 14 death-penalty cases, that FBI examiners “exceeded the limits of science” when they linked hair to crime-scene evidence.

The department is notifying defendants about errors in two more death-penalty cases and in 134 non-capital cases over the next month, and will complete evaluations of 98 other cases by early October, including 14 more death-penalty cases. After over two years they will have completed 10% of the 2,600 cases in question.

The popularity of the Women Against Feminism hashtag has many feminists less than enthused. With anti-feminists demanding that feminist ideologues address their grievances, it’s no wonder that so many of them are grumpy. Luckily, Katie Notopoulos has arrived to solve all their woes.

Her solution? Unfollow all the men in your Twitter feed so that it becomes an echo chamber of women who always agree with you. Well done, Katie, thanks to feminist logic, now you only have to deal with the women who disagree with you. Because of course women never ever say hateful things online, or have opinions of their own. If they do, well, then they must be men in disguise.

While her article and campaign could be interpreted as a mean-spirited joke, or an act of trolling, it should surprise no one that there are people who are dumb enough to comply. In a weird way, this is helpful to many men on social media. Because if a follower of yours is enough of a passive-aggressive psycho to participate in this bullshit, then really they are doing you a favor.

Troll or not, Katie Notopoulos is proof that there are misandrists in high places and that these kinds of idiots truly walk among us.

Nina Burleigh concludes, with the power of her feminist logic, that the Women Against Feminism are men or male avatars, which is probably one of the most sexist things that many of us have seen or heard in the past. The irony in this is that this is coming from the group of women claiming to be acting in the best interests of women.

What does it say when the first thought that these feminists have is that women cannot draw such conclusions on their own? Burleigh is not the first feminist to suggest that Women Against Feminism is a hoax made up of men pretending to be women. Jessica Valenti and several others have suggested something similar. Burleigh had this to say on the topic:

“Everything about Women Against Feminism suggests it’s a sock puppet for the aggrieved misogynists and pedophiles of the anti-feminist men’s rights crowd. The main clue is that almost all the women on the site are nubile and posed in ways that fulfill dirty old men’s wildest dreams about pliant young things.”

Jessica Valenti tweeted:
“Sort of amazing how many “women” joined twitter the day #WomenAgainstFeminism started. CURIOUS.”

It is truly amazing how sexist these well-known feminists are. What they are saying is that this is not merely a response to the problems within feminism. That this is politically motivated by conservative ideals being pushed onto women by their husbands and boyfriends. So if a woman considers the way her actions negatively affect men, these thoughts are not her own. They are the work of the patriarchy using them as a pretty puppet for perverted white men.

It’s nice to know that the moment the feminist movement comes under legitimate criticism, their first thought is that it must be some kind of MRA conspiracy. Because women can think for themselves, but only in ways feminism approves of, and if not it’s surely the work of the patriarchy. Way to protect women’s rights, ladies. We knew you’d find a way to silence dissent somehow.

The cult of motherhood is pervasive in modern culture, making sure that we never forget that moms are the supposed end-all be-all of sacrifice and success. Enter Cheerios, a cereal brand that has recently chosen a marketing avenue that includes celebrating dad-hood, and they nailed it. Just last week, Cheerios released a 2-minute promo following around a dad as he sums up everything awesome and important about fatherhood. From the little fun things like getting dirty, telling jokes, and building forts, to the more complex arts of helping with homework and leading by example, dads play a very important role in children’s lives by stimulating imagination, educating, and teaching morality. Dads are phenomenally multifaceted, breaking rules when it is time for fun and making rules when structure is needed. They are also excellent at expressing love and affection, even if it is in a variety of non-traditional ways.

But one of the most important aspects of dad-hood is aiding in the transition from adolescence into adulthood, especially teaching boys how to grow into healthy, strong men. Kids look up to dads as role models and teachers. Most of us are familiar with the statistics connected with fatherless homes, so we know how important dads are. It is extremely refreshing to see advertising focusing on the positive side of fatherhood, especially when we are bombarded in the media with images of incompetent dads who are viewed and treated like overgrown children. Not only are involved fathers necessary, but we also need to start embracing them as the norm, not statistical outliers. Cheerios has a pretty solid history of showing fathers in a positive light, and they really got it right with this commercial. Other companies and brands need to take note of this success.

Rachel is a former host of Honey Badger Radio, a recurring member of the Tales from the Infrared crew. She wanders around the web researching feminist insanity, poking people with a large stick, and keeping everyone in the silly place. When she isn't doing any of those things she spends her time doing even more blogging, grooming her rather large fluffy cat, nerding out with her favorite people, and burying herself in various fandoms. Pinkie Pie is best Pony! (You spelled "Fluttershy" wrong. -- Zen)

I would just like to comment about something that came up in this show. It concerns the individual that wishes to understand what definitions of manhood you were trying to support. That individual, bases on limited research suggested stoicism and violence.

I found it ironic, being a member of what could be defined as the “warrior class” that violence was never a virtue of manhood. This misconception that men are supposed to be violent is one of the most fundamental misunderstandings of the warrior culture. Warriors
throughout history only trained for war as a form of limiting violence. In fact the more a warrior trains and is proficient he becomes in warfare, the less likely he is to engage in these activities. Even in modern warfare, we tolerate an overwhelming burst of violence in order to secure a lasting peace. Violence that is used is to be swift and controlled. Men have gone to great lengths to develop laws and moral codes in warfare to limit the “misuse” of violence. So the mark of a true “man” or “warrior” is not the violence but the ability to only apply violence when absolutely require and in such incidents only enough violence as required.

Most of those that live under the protection of the warrior class can never perceive this subtle but critical difference between “teaching boys to be violent” and “teaching boy how to limit their violence”. The general perception becomes that any instruction in this area is contradictory to a “good” society. The traditional male institutions and activities involving warfare are being destroyed with tragic consequences. Boys need a mentor to teach them the critical aspect of how to limit their violence. The more that violence is tried to be restricted and eliminated within our society (i.e. you can’t teach children to handle rifles, expel them for using blocks like pistols, etc) the more violence we see because of this cultural control mechanisms once provided by the warrior culture has been outlawed. Without training boys to have a cultural understanding of when, where, and to what level to apply violence they are left to discover this on their own, often with tragic consequence. Without culturally
acceptable warrior culture to guide these boys, you see the raise of gangs and organized crime that exist without societal controls.

As a combat veteran, I would truly love to see the world at peace. However, I am not stupid enough to think that if our culture disarms itself and destroys its own warrior culture that somehow the rest of the cultures around the world will do the same. Violence is ultimately inherent in the human experience, regardless if one engages in it him/herself or class upon the police or military to do it for them. We cannot ban, outlaw, our educate humankind out of violence. These leaves the only question of are we going to teach and train individuals how to use violence in a culturally appropriate fashion or are we going to let violence occur randomly without cultural controls.

So at much dismay to the larger society, I will continue to raise my sons within a warrior culture. While many may condemn me for such an action, it is ironic how often they call upon me (and generations of my family) to provide limited violence around the world while condemning me for it when I return home. I want my children to know the impacts of violence so they can adequately weight the consequences of violence with other options. I do not want them to live under the boot of an oppressor because they lack the coward to stand. Nor do I want them to become tyrants because they use violence at every resort. They must learn about violence so if the time comes, they can apply limited violence to stop a greater uncontrolled application of violence.

Hannah

Hi Honeybadgers,

I’m a trans woman who was a very staunch feminist. It was because I was so interested in understanding gender dynamics and doing my best to understand the history of feminism and understanding how it works today that I had to stop being a feminist. Some time during my online research bits, I came across Karen Straughan’s youtube channel and I deeply respected how put together her arguments were and that she actually cited her research and backed up her claims. Feminism initially appealed to me because after I came out as a transsexual and began my transition, I lost practically all of my “friends” and I was adrift trying to make new connections and I found myself in environments that were supposed to be where the LGBT people go. This was about seven years ago so transsexuals still didn’t have much visibility yet and, frankly, gay and lesbian people actually were, on average, more hateful to me than the average population. Within that community however, were feminists who decried the treatment of transsexuals and told me that I was a victim and that feminism was there for me. Having lost so many of my previous connections, it made sense to me and I got on board. Over the next couple of years, I began to understand that even though they said that they were there for me, I still wasn’t *actually* being accepted by any of them. I still have a penis, you see and because of that, I am not welcome in women’s spaces and I should respect women’s feelings that they don’t feel safe with a penis in the room. There were not, and still aren’t, trans* safe spaces and no one was interested in helping to build one. So I started questioning and now here I am.

I can not say that I agree with everything that men’s rights has going on either. However, I found myself coming across mgtow and a youtuber who goes by the name “Spetsnaz” when I felt that it was my duty, as a still somewhat feminist to listen to men as well. I found myself crying listening to his videos (along with some of Stefan Molyneux’s) because it was like they were reading my biography sometimes and actually saying that how I (and “boys” in general) was raised was not ok. You see, I’m one of those that knew from a young age (around 7-8) that I wasn’t a “boy”. I felt more comfortable around girls and I wanted to have the things that were marketed to girls as a couple of examples. However, being raised in the south, I also would often hear family members say things about gay men and effeminate men along the lines of “they’re going to hell” and “they deserve to be beaten and/or killed because they are bad”. These days were pre-internet days and the concept of transsexuality was practically non-existent so I thought that me feeling like a girl meant that I was just gay and gay people are bad and deserve to go to hell so I kept quiet and did what I was told so that my family (and God) wouldn’t hate me.

The reason that I bring up this shortened auto-biography is to show that, yes, I was “raised as a boy” in the south along with my older brother. He got the worst of it because I always watched and seeing what happened to him motivated me to not do the same things. We would get spanked for everything. If our grades slipped below a “B”, if we didn’t get the chores done before the parents got home, if we complained about doing yard work, if we talked back or questioned anything we were told, if we dropped glasses or spilled things on the carpet, if we talked or played in our room when it was bed-time, the Bible and the leather belt would soon be in the room in the hands of an angry adult. My mother would make us use a toothbrush and bleach to clean the grout between the tiles in the bathroom and if it wasn’t white enough, we had to stay in there and keep at it until she was satisfied and we couldn’t complain or the threat of the belt would come out. We were not allowed to cry. We were not allowed to show discontent. I got the lesson better than my brother did because he would maintain his defiance whereas I would spend time crying alone on the walk to or from school because I didn’t want to get yelled at and/or beaten for being sad or angry and eventually I turned to self-harm.

My two sisters, on the other hand, were never struck. Not even once. They might get scolded, but they were forgiven. They were never held accountable to the same standard of cleanliness when it came to chores either. They were treated like angels and very delicately. They were encouraged to explore dance or music, but any extra-curricular activities I wanted to do were met with “I’m sorry, we just can’t afford it”.

Now, someone on the outside looking in may read everything I have written and come to the conclusion that I feel the way I do now (as a transsexual) because it seemed like the best option to escape what it meant to me to be a boy and a man. I can only say that I had already considered this as a possibility before I actually started transition and have explored it with a therapist and have come to the unanimous conclusion that this is just not the case.

But I get it. When I see the way that we (and by “we”, I mean not me, but I’m included as part of this society) still treat boys. When I see that my brother is raising his three boys the same way, my heart aches and I still find myself crying. I have anger towards feminism and feminists because they generally have a callous disregard and just don’t care about boys and men and they don’t want to hear about it because for some reason, there’s this cognitive dissonance that the men they hate today were the boys they have ignored. I can’t say that I am a feminist, nor can I say that I am mgtow or mrm or mra. What I can say is that I listen and I empathize that everyone has hurt and has fear and while I can and try to offer my support, I do not participate in the construction of a demonized other so that I can belong to a tribe of thought. Unfortunately, that seems to mean that I am completely ineffectual because there seems to be a need to have a demonized other in order for any movement to gather enough of a following to progress. Things *are* better for me now. I have forgiven my parents and the bond between my mother and I has never been stronger.

So, dear Honeybadgers, thank you for what you do. Thank you to anyone who tries to help those who have or have ever had a penis to have their voices actually heard in some way by a society that generally wants to ignore them. Some day, I can only hope, that the cognitive dissonance between boys and men fades and society can adopt more constructive ways to raise boys and men that allows them to have just as much freedom as we give girls to be who they are and to express themselves however they wish and to have that honored and respected.

My apologies for the length of my post,

~Hannah

Razedbywolvs

Why are gay men not nice to trans woman?
“transsexuals still didn’t have much visibility yet” I strongly suggest watching the series “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia”.

Hannah

I dunno. You’d have to ask each of them personally. Some are cool, but I think that gay and lesbian people get just as hung up on genitals as hetero people. Lesbians are worse than gay men are to trans women and gay men are catty as hell to trans men. I’d suggest that maybe it’s because they actually find them attractive and don’t know how to deal with it so they default to demonizing them just like every tribe of people does.

Razedbywolvs

That would make scene if the world was a school yard but I find that a little strange. Most of the gay men I have meet don’t seem to have a problem with sexual attraction. They seem to be typical men in that regard. Light switch on light switch off

Hannah

In my experience, most people don’t develop beyond high school social norms. I suspect it has something to do with the general public not knowing how to operate or function without being told what to do or how to do it.

Razedbywolvs

I think my own experiences are skewing my perspective.

Hannah

Probably no more or less than my experiences construct my perspective 😉

In any discussion, it’s important to me to allow other perspectives and experiences than my own. It’s the only way we can all achieve a larger understanding. My experiences might probably be most influenced by growing up in Texas.

Razedbywolvs

Well im a straight guy so I really only know how gay men treat me. I have had mostly a good experience with
them but I grew up in Guerneville CA (a gay tourist town for the folks in San Fransisco). I think the gay men tend to be comfortable around me. Lesbians on the other hand seem to be in some kind of competition with me.
So I guess gay men don’t see me seen as competition for a prospective mate but gay women do.
You on the other hand are not “straight” (Sorry there is no other way to put it. Sorry again that was not a pun) so you are competition. Maybe frome bolth gay men and women. I guess my own experiences can support your theory.
I’m a little insulted now. I thought they were nice to me because I am good looking and they were tying to get down my pants.

Hannah

Ha! Who says they weren’t? Never can tell sometimes.

R M

Your post may be long Hannah, but every word was worth reading. Thank you for posting it, it was a thoughtful and empathetic piece of writing. I live the UK, raised in a very different place from you and grew up facing very different problems. But so much of what you say resonates to me as almost the first time a woman has expressed an understanding of how I feel about the way cultures of violence and harshness affects boys, and lays issues in them that have to get dealt with for the rest of their lives. Especially if they reject violence.

I am not going to pretend I can understand the challenges you’ve faced, but I can say that I found searching for a place to fit very hard, and made all the harder because I didn’t want to fit into a given male stereotype, but create one I felt I could be proud of. Rejecting violence as response to violence, just led to increased brutality, and violence wasn’t restricted to just from males. Females chose to target me to using other males as weapons. It is hammered into you to fight back regardless of what you want or at very least don’t let them see they have hurt you.

I am sad to say I couldn’t grow up to be a man who retained the values he felt were right as a boy. I have felt forced to accept violence as a possible tool in a set, even if I choose not to use it. I have felt forced to project a willingness and tell myself regularly fight back if attacked, that it is cowardice not you.

Even though many years now have passed it lingers like a stain. In reality, I have withdrawn from interactions far more than I should have done to pursue the dreams I had for my life, as way to try to square the circle.

Whatever happiness and friendships you are searching for Hannah I hope you find them, use your talent for expression and understanding of their being many sides to reality. I don’t where it fits in this world, but I know I felt I wanted to respond positively.